Mostly Beagles, Babies, and Books...

…because I love alliteration and Fridays! This week, Carla May tried banana for the first time and loved it.

She also snatched a cookie out of my hand and gummed it before I had the chance to snatch it back. While she laughed at her mischievousness, I managed to snap a picture.

Other than delighting in my child’s reactions at food (a girl after my own heart), here are five things that have brought me joy this week:

S-Town

S-Town is an incredible podcast that I binge listened to all 7 hour-long episodes this week. The podcast starts off as a murder mystery set in Woodstock, Alabama, and evolves into a treasure hunt, and finally settles in as a character study of an eccentric, troubled, and truly fascinating man.

While I laughed out loud at points during nearly every episode, this was not a light-hearted story – there were many graphic and disturbing scenes. By far, this was the best podcast I have experienced (I don’t want to say listened to, because this particular series felt like an experience), and I can tell already that the story will stick around in my mind for quite awhile.

S-Town was produced by the same folks who produced the super-popular Serial podcast (which I have downloaded but not yet listened to). From what I have read, S-town is to a novel as Serial is to a TV show, for those have already experienced the Serial series.

My father-in-law shared with me a fabulous write-up that was done on S-Town in The New Yorker this week. Check it out here.

The Firm

Chatham picked this 1993 movie out the other night, and when I saw that it was over two hours long, I thought there was no way I could possibly stay up to watch all of it. Oh boy, was I wrong! This was a mind-bending legal thriller based on the best-selling John Grisham novel, starring some vintage Tom Cruise.

The Firm is streaming free for Amazon Prime members right now!

@subwaybookreview

I heard about this Instagram project because the creator Uli Beutter Cohen was the guest on one of my favorite podcasts this week (What Should I Read Next). The Subway Book Review is a collection of black and white photos of subway riders with their books. Uli interviews each participant and includes glimpses of their lives and reviews of their books (of course) in the Instagram captions.

A post shared by Subway Book Review (@subwaybookreview) on Mar 31, 2017 at 10:41am PDT

Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies is a new HBO series based on the Liane Moriarty novel of the same name. I read the book back when it first came out, so I was thrilled to see that a series based on the book was being produced starring some of my favorite actresses – Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley (who starred in the Divergent trilogy).

This show is a mystery/thriller with lots of domestic drama. The finale aired on Sunday, but the entire series is streaming through HBO Go. This was a rare show that Chatham and I were both really into, which is always a nice treat!

Slow Parenting

This week I read a great article from the Boston Globe that actually came out two years ago on slow parenting. This article hit close to home with me, since one of my goals for this year is to make relaxing more of a priority and really try to savor my time than fill all of it.

This quote sums it up: “Slow parenting cherishes quality over quantity, being in the moment, and making meaningful connections with your family.”